^ T'^^'^^^^'^^^^'Y''*^ 



49 



arch, 1897.] 



ON THE BAELY STAGES OF METSIOCNEMUS FPSCIPJIS. Mo. 



BY CLAUDE MORLEY F.E.S., &c. 



I was fortunate enough to obtain many curions '^ "^ 



interior of .otten stn.p. .atn.ated with --~;;^^;^-"t; 



Bentley Woods, near 

 Ipswich, and also in 

 Epping Forest, during 

 the early spring of last 

 year. Not recognising 

 them, and thinking they 

 might be of interest, I 

 placed them, together 

 with a large piece of 

 their pabulum, beneath 

 a bell glass. They be- 

 came pupae during the 

 last week of February, 

 from which the imagines 

 were emerging from 

 March 14th to 20th. I 

 subsequently sent a pair 

 to my friend Mr. F. V. 

 Theobald, B.A., F.E.S., 

 who was good enough to 

 name them for me. 

 The larva is cylindri- 

 __ eal, of a dark slate- 



^^' ' .• ^ colour, and, when f ull- 

 ^•^'^■^''''^' fed, about 2i lines long. 



+ 









It is ..regarious, and, like that of various Tentkredinid^. .s found 

 feeding side by side in an almost straight row ; this is more especally 

 Z caL when the larva is young, since, when nearly matured, one o 

 two sometimes stray to a little distance. Each segment bears several 

 bristles, which appear to perform a very necessary dnty^ Th damp 

 wood in which the larva, live is, of course, excessively liable to the 

 attacks of mould, and were it not that these bristles catch and hold 

 the damp at a distance from them (absorbing -t rn some way I do no 

 unders. nd) very few would escape this dreaded foe to the nisect 

 world Ver; curious the larva looks covered, at a measurable distance 

 from its body, by a silver coating of dew-drops. ^ 



